Swim team places top-three in 13 events at Pacific Invite

Pacific Invite Results

STOCKTON, Calif. – Preston Jenkins, Kelly Hatanaka and Cameron Lindsay placed top-three in two events each, helping the BYU swim team earn 13 top-three times at the Pacific Invite on Nov. 16-18.

"Overall, we swam well and most important we improved from last meet," BYU head coach John Brooks said. "I still want the team to get up and continue to improve, get-up and race."

Overall, the BYU men’s team took third place with a score of 540, behind the University of Denver at 980 and University of the Pacific with 726. No. 4 Stanford University took fourth at 510, but only competed on the first day of the meet, while Fresno Pacific University placed fifth with 378. The BYU women’s team also took third place with a score of 702.50, behind Pacific at 941.50 and Fresno Pacific with 843, but ahead of San Jose State University took fourth with a score of 610.

BYU’s only first place win of the Invite came on the first day when senior Vanessa Moffatt competed in the women’s 200-yard butterfly. Moffatt placed first with a time of 2:05.78, two seconds faster than Fresno Pacific’s Daria Belova.

A team of Jenkins, Levi Jensen, Sherif Aboumandour and Payton Sorenson started the Cougars out strong on the first day of competition in the 200-yard medley relay placing third with a time of 1:31:80. The following day, a team of Kumni Ogunfeibo, Brad Prolo, Aboumandour and Sorenson also took third in the men’s 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:24.34.

Jenkins went on to finish second in the men’s 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:38.63, only a tenth of a second behind Grant Shoults of Stanford. Sorenson came away with second place in the men’s 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.31. On the second day, Jenkins also placed second in the 200-yard backstroke at 1:48.68. He also earned a first place time in the 200-yard IM at 1:52.37, however his score did not count towards the team score because he was an exhibition swimmer. 

Prolo, was slotted in the first heat of the men’s 100-yard breaststroke, but earned a time better than most of fastest two heats taking third place with a time of 57.40 besting his original time of 58.05.

In the women’s 400-yard IM, Hatanaka took third place with a time of 4:28.11. Hatanaka continued her success on the second day of the Invite, taking second in the 200-yard IM with a time of 2:08.22.

BYU's brother and sister duo, Cameron Lindsay and Mariah Lindsay both took third place in the men’s and women’s 200-yard breaststroke with times of 2:06.71 and 2:23.17, respectively. Cameron then went on to place second in the 200-yard IM with a time of 1:54.55.

Adding to the top-three times, BYU's Madeline Zarchin took third in the 100-butterfly with a time of 57.97, teammate  Katia Quezada placed third in the 1650-yard freestyle and Cougar Matt Abernathy earned third in the men’s 100-yard butterfly.

Next up, the Cougars swim and dive teams will travel to different Invites on the weekend of Nov. 16-18. Select groups from the swim team will compete in the UNLV Invite at Buchanan Natatorium in Las Vegas, while the dive team will travel to University Texas-Austin to compete in the UT Diving Invite at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center. The UT Diving Invite begins at 5:00 p.m. CST on Thursday, Nov. 16, continues at 4:00 p.m. CST on Friday, Nov. 17 and concludes as an all-day event on Saturday, Nov. 18. The Nov. 16-17 competitions will be broadcast live on the Longhorn Network.